Television - Turning Doers into Watchers

The most recent incident which prompts you to think on these lines are the breathtaking scenes where a family gets washed away by the sudden rush of water. That person instead of, doing anything or at least making an attempt to save some lives, was busy shooting the real life tragedy on camera. The video is now serving the purpose of amusing the millions world over and inspiring other to do just the same when the opportunity arises.

We have lost the conscience or to be more accurate messed it up with the interventions of television in our lives. There is no clear conscience as we are exposed to so many versions of what's right and what's wrong. We have been turned into attention hungry maniacs. All we could think of is capturing a minute of fame.

We turn the blast sites into tourist destinations, in hope of making the camera, catching a glimpse of the bomb. The best we can do at these times is to stay at our homes, protect ourselves and give the investigators the peace to investigate the site. Not just the blasts any calamity, accident, theft is a matter of visual delight for the passerby who'll do nothing but hamper the quick rehabilitation.

One of the most shameful proof of this metamorphosis of the society caused by television was when the newspaper photographer clicked the photos of a girl being stripped on the New Year's Eve, instead of responding to her calls for help. All this for the sake of first creating a story out of it and then helping her.

Television is forcing upon us its own ideas, ideologies, opinions 24*7 and at some point we crumble and lose to it. We lose the ability to be truly independent in our thoughts and they are in some way influenced. The classic example being the utter hatred towards Pakistan or blaming ISI for everything, because that's what we have been fed 24*7 since we have had ears and eyes for television.
How many of us actually know what the Kashmir issue really is?
What is World politics?
Why is the World flat again?

Television is producing a generation of obese children fit only to play anything on their playstations. They are now fit only to be watchers and not doers.

"Activists are generally doers - rather than watching television and thinking about the world they will put there energies into doing something 'active' to change the situation."

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